Pero en un beso fue que yo te conocí...

Chapter nine

Bruno hated Fridays. He had decided that they were much too depressing for him. Even as he stood in the middle of the lively festival, he felt nothing but pain. It was so dull without her shining next to him.

Pepa gave him a sympathetic smile and squeezed his shoulder gently, "She'll come around, hermanito. Give her time." She gave him a warm hug then walked away to wrangle in her party animal of a husband.

Left alone again, Bruno narrowed his eyes sadly. He watched some children run past with sparklers in their tiny hands, reminding him of younger versions of him and Kat. The stinging tears in his eyes made him realise that he just might be letting the love of his life slip through his fingers.

"Has it ever occurred to your small brain that I might not want to be a part of this family?"

Their argument rang through his mind like an echoing shout. Surely she didn't mean it...right? She had been a part of the family for so long and should have been aware of that. It wasn't as if she had just forgotten the time Alma sat her down to discuss what plans the young brunette had for her son. No one except new Madrigal family members was given that talk.

But she didn't want to be part of it. She didn't want to be a part of me, Bruno scolded himself. He leaned back against the building behind him then allowed himself to sink to the ground. His arms wrapped around his knees as he buried his face into them. It was probably a sad sight, yeah, but what was the better location for a heartbroken fool: the corner crying or trying to force its way into a crowd?

"You look horrible...Is this bad timing?"

Bruno hastily lifted his head to see if he had simply imagined her voice or not. His body forgot how to function when she took in her image.

Her ocean eyes and golden skin were nicely detailed with a light dusting of makeup, making her glow in the candlelight. The lively curls that once wildly flowed down her form like winding roots in the earth had been tamed, half held in a ponytail by a blue ribbon and the other half left down. All this was nice and all but what really caught his eye was the dress she was wearing.

The body accentuated her feminine form much more than the pants and shirt she usually wore while the little dragon embroidery served as a homage to Katerina's mystical, fairytale-loving side. She had always been a believer in the mythical and that's what Bruno loved most about her. She was a bit immature like him and never cared what the others in town thought until just recently.

His wide eyes trailed further down to the hourglasses on the bottom of the skirt. Unconsciously, he allowed his jaw to hang open and his hand to grab the fabric. He ran his fingers over it for a minute. This symbolically tied her to the Madrigal son and she wouldn't have worn it if she were trying to separate from the family.

"Mi mamá made it. Someone left is on your bed," Kat startled him back into reality. He quickly, (although rather awkwardly), scrambled onto his feet and took the hands of the Goddess before him.

"You look... wow. Just wow..." his face burned from embarrassment but he couldn't tear his eyes away from her.